October 3, 2015
"We're here," said Flash Sentry as he and Twilight arrived by bus at an amusement park in Trottingham called Kings Park. The sprawling park had various rides, a zoo, and both an indoor and outdoor water park all located in the same location. "Ready to go?"
"Sure," Twilight said, still nervous. Flash had previously asked her out to go to the park several days before. As she carried a bag of clothes with her off the bus, she thought to herself, "Please, for the love of God, don't screw this up, Twilight..."
As they made their way to the entrance, Flash said to her, "We came here just in time, actually. The park, sans the indoor water park, closes on the 5th."
As Flash then paid for their tickets at a booth, Twilight said, "What do you want to ride first?"
"I was thinking a roller coaster to start off the day," Flash replied as they made their way through a turnstile. "How about you?"
"Same," Twilight replied. In reality, heights were not exactly her thing. She thought to herself, "Oh boy... I hope he doesn't choose a really tall one..."
After about 2 hours of riding rides, the 2 decided to get changed and go to the water park section. Twilight had already found a 2 chairs for the 2 to sit in. As she waited for Flash top return, she said to herself, "Alright, I haven't screwed up yet. All I gotta do is-"
Then, Flash walked to her and said, "I'm back."
Twilight took one look at Flash, shirtless, in his bathing suit and began to blush. "Oh... Hi..." She thought to herself, "Oh no... He looks even better than I thought..."
Meanwhile, Flash himself had begun to notice he was looking at Twilight in her bathing suit, a sports bra-esque bikini, in a different way as well. "Is that suit new?" "Really? Is that the best you could come up with, Flash?"
Twilight snapped out of her trance and said, "This? Yeah... I've never really worn it because I thought it was a bit daring for me." She looked at herself and wondered what Flash was thinking.
Changing subject, Flash asked, "Do you wanna ride the Cyclone? It's got 2-person tubes and goes fast." He then pointed to it from their location. The slide was about 50 feet tall, red and green, and ended in a giant bowl that led to a landing pool.
Twilight took one look at it and nodded, having become less afraid of tall rides due to the rides she went on earlier. She then said, "Alright. I'll go."
Towards the end of their visit, Flash and Twilight decided to go on the Ferris Wheel. As they made their way to it across the park, Twilight said to him, "You know, this has been an awesome day, Flash."
"I agree," he replied before stretching his arms and his wings. "We oughta do this some other time. I mean, we can't here 'cause this place closes for the season on the 5th, but maybe something like a movie."
Twilight nodded and said, "Yeah. That would be nice."
Suddenly, they both heard panicked noises emanating from the direction of the ferris wheel. A voice yelled, "Everyone stay away from the Ferris Wheel! There's an emergency!"
Flash decided to ask a passerby what was going on, saying, "What does that guy mean by emergency?"
"Someone threatened to bomb the Ferris Wheel," the passerby replied. "I don't know much."
Then, a police officer yelled out into the crowd, "Is there anyone here that knows how to play games well?! It's extremely important!"
Flash looked at Twilight and said, "You do, right?"
Twilight thought about it for a second, and replied, "I do. I wonder if..." She was then cut off by her Alicorn Puzzle glowing.
"So," Flash said to himself. "We're doing this again."
As the other Twilight stood before him, she said, "Let's see what we can do." She then took Flash by the hand and led him to the police officer. When they got there, she said, "I am great at games, sir. What do you need?"
"It's about the suspect on the Ferris Wheel," said the police officer as the three of them walked to it. "When we get there, we'll tell you what to do, and do not stray from our instructions, got it?"
"Yes sir," replied the other Twilight. "I assume the suspect says they have a bomb or something?"
"Exactly," replied the police officer. "He says he rigged all of the cars with one bomb each. There are people on 3 cars out of 13. He wants us to pick a random park attendee to play a game with him using a deck of regular playing cards." He then shrugged. "I got no idea why, he's just crazy."
The other Twilight used a cellphone to talk to the bomber, whose location was not known. She told him, "Ready to play?"
"I sure am," replied the bomber as he chuckled. "Now, are the jokers removed from the deck?"
"They are," she replied as she placed a deck of playing cards, sans the jokers, that had been given to her by the police on the ground in front of her. "Now what?"
"Deal the cards into 13 piles of 4," the bomber replied. "12 piles are to be arranged in a circle and 1 pile is to be left in the middle."
Once the other Twilight arranged the cards in the order the bomber wanted them in, she said, "Alright, now what?"
"To start the game," the bomber replied. "Flip over the top card in the pile and then place it in the clock position its number corresponds to. Aces go in the 0100 hours position, Knights go in the 1100 hours position, Queens go in the 1200 hours position, and Kings stay in the center. You should know the rest, as apart from that, it's a regular game of clock solitaire. Car 13 is not to be affected."
Intrigued by the bomber's use of military time, the other Twilight asked, "Are you a military veteran?"
The bomber became hesitant to answer at first before admitting, "Yes. I know you asked that because I used military time. Anyways, just flip the damn center card over and get this show on the road already."
The other Twilight turned to several police guarding her and said, "The bomber says he's a veteran. We are starting the game now." She then turned over the top card in the center pile, revealing a 3 of spades. She then placed it on pile 3. From there, she drew the top unturned card of pile 3, revealing a 4 of hearts. She then placed it on pile 4.
Eventually, after drawing and turning 9 cards, she was down to one final card on pile 4. After placing a 7 of clubs from that pile on the 7th pile, she told the bomber, "Pile 4 is all complete."
"Good," the bomber simply replied.
Suddenly, car 4 of the Ferris Wheel exploded with a loud boom, sending debris falling onto the other cars. Flash Sentry, watching next to the police officers guarding the other Twilight, said, "Holy shit!"
The other Twilight yelled, "Oh my God! Car 4 exploded!" She then realized what she needed to do to win the game. She turned around to the chief of the Trottingham Police Department and told him, "I'll need to draw 4 kings and place them in the center pile to win!"
"Well then you better," the chief frantically replied. "Please, hurry!"
"I already have one king there," she replied confidently. She then began turning other cards to continue the game. "3 more kings is all I need," she thought to herself in worry.
Eventually, she had drawn 3 kings and placed them in the center. However, she was also 1 card away to completing piles 6, 9, and 10. 10 had people on it.
"This next card HAS to be a king," the other Twilight thought to herself. "If it isn't, I'll run the risk of killing someone." She then pondered to herself. "Say... Why did the bomber say car 13 was not affected by this?"
She then drew the next card, closing her eyes in fear. When she held it up, she opened her eyes and looked at a kings, the 4th kings. Flash said, "She drew the 4th kings! She won!"
"I did," the other Twilight said to herself as she sighed in deep relief and stood up. She then looked at car 13 and noticed there was a solitary man inside. "Say, you police officers should look at car 13. The bomber said that car was unaffected. I have a strong feeling he's in that one."
The police chief walked over to the other Twilight and shook her hand, saying as the crowd cheered, "You did a good job today, and I was wondering the same thing about car 13." He then turned to a SWAT team assembled nearby and told them, "Get ready to go into car 13. I think the bomber's in that car."